Free Republic

British sniper from the elite SAS saved an 8-year-old boy and his father from an Islamic State executioner by shooting the executioner in the head last month. The SAS sniper team was reportedly tipped off to the execution in the Syrian desert by an Iraqi spy. When they arrived, they found that several Shia Muslims had already been beheaded by their captors. The IS (commonly referred to as ISIS) executioner, flanked on both sides by armed companions, was preparing to kill a young boy and his father next when the SAS team deployed its .50-caliber silenced sniper rifle. “The ISIS...

This is a YouTube video I came across. During the 1970s, the Sultanate of Oman was threatened by Communist guerillas of the PFLOAG (Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf), and the UK sent SAS soldiers to help the government. On July 19, 1972, a SAS squad was stationed outside the town of Mirbat, in Dhofar province. They came under attack by several hundred Adoo (Communists), and they had to hold the line until support could arrive. Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxmtbMFGSXo&feature=autoplay&list=PL5FFDDFA750F39D0A&lf=results_main&playnext=4

WHAT makes the Special Air Service elite may not be what you expect, reports Mark Dodd. While the memory of his Vietnam homecoming is unlikely to fade, this week -- the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Australian SAS -- the commander of the Australian Defence Force's Special Operations Command, Major General Mike Hindmarsh, pays Barnby and his fellow Vietnam SAS veterans the ultimate tribute: they were the best in the world. "The SAS Regiment, in an incredibly difficult operating environment in Indochina, quickly stamped itself as probably the finest exponents of clandestine reconnaissance and harassment in the world...

THE attack came under cover of darkness. Without warning, rocket-propelled grenades slammed into two of the New Zealand SAS troop vehicles, the force of the blast throwing Lance Corporal Willy Apiata to the ground and wounding two of his fellow soldiers. One of the men, members of an SAS patrol in Afghanistan in 2004, was bleeding heavily after shrapnel had severed an artery, and was lapsing in and out of consciousness. Without immediate medical assistance, the soldier, identified only as Corporal D, would have died. The three men were isolated, pinned down by machinegun and rifle fire from an estimated...

MEMBERS of the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) have set off for operations in Afghanistan. Defence Minister Brendan Nelson and Opposition defence spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon wished the soldiers every success for a dangerous mission in a function at Perth's Campbell Barracks, home of the SASR. About 300 personnel will deploy to Afghanistan following the government's decision to increase the troop commitment with the addition of a special forces task group. That will comprise elements of the SASR, Commando Battalion, Incident Response Regiment and other support elements. "Australia's Special Forces have, through recent deployments, developed a wealth of experience and useful...

THOSE who knew Joshua Porter say he was a loving husband, son and brother. Those same people said he would also have been a wonderful father, but tragically his unborn child will never get the chance to know him. Almost four months after Trooper Porter was killed when the Black Hawk helicopter in which he was flying plunged to the bottom of the Pacific, hundreds of mourners - including his widow, Carinna, who is pregnant with the couple's first child - gathered yesterday to farewell him in his home town of Toukley on the NSW central coast. Trooper Porter, 28,...

SAS joins hunt for OsamaBy Michael Smith and Peter Foster (Filed: 20/03/2004) Britain has sent 100 SAS soldiers to Afghanistan and the Americans have asked it to send hundreds more elite troops to support an intensified push to capture Osama bin Laden, defence sources said yesterday. The SAS force was seen passing through Bagram air base, north of Kabul. An official at the base, the headquarters of allied special forces in Afghanistan, said it was on its way to the mountainous border with Pakistan to take part in Operation Mountain Storm against al-Qa'eda and Taliban militants. Defence chiefs are considering...

<p>WASHINGTON: In an uncertain world, one fact should not change: in a highly communication-conscious country such as ours, no administration should create or change its policies to match the results of polls.</p> <p>According to pollsters, President George W. Bush, the war in Iraq and the occupation of Iraq are suffering. There is massive disappointment that weapons of mass destruction have not been found and that the threat of danger to the United States from Iraq was exaggerated.</p>